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ROOSEVELT 



HIS POLICIES 
HIS ENEMIES 
HIS FRIENDS 



BY 






FRANCIS A. ADAMS 



Wintemute-Sawyer Pub. Co., 
New York and Pittsburg 



iL 






^ 







MAR 5 1909 




Copyright 


1909 



Wintemute-Sawyek Pub. Co. 
New York and Pittsburg 



PREFACE. 

In justification to Theodore Roosevelt, it is the duty of 
every American citizen, irrespective of his party affiliations, 
to study the record of his public service and to withhold 
judgment until the unbiased facts have been analyzed and 
their effects determined. 

An unprejudiced record of the public acts of Theodore 
Roosevelt can not be found in the newspapers, nor is there 
any biographical sketch that touches adequately upon 
the political phases of his career, particularly since he be- 
came the Chief Executive of the United States. It is, there- 
fore, with the view of briefly reviewing his public career 
that this book is written. In the presentation of this con- 
tribution to the political and social history of the present 
day, the author has made no attempt to reconcile the poli- 
tical views of partisans with those of the subject of his 
work. His object has been to record the important acts 
that Theodore Roosevelt has performed and to draw the 
conclusions that an unprejudiced American would arrive at 
from their study. 

Particular attention has been paid to the work that 
Theodore Roosevelt has done for the good of all of the 
people. His record is reviewed so as to show what he has 
done to enforce the law of the land on mighty corporations 
as well as on individuals, great and small ; his efforts as an 



iv Preface. 

arbitrator in the Pennsylvania Coal Strike are explained. 
His intervention in the Russian-Japanese War is cited to 
show the universality of his statesmanship. As a light on 
his wide concern for the welfare of the people, his career 
is sketched with its relation to the Employers' Liability 
Act and the work of the Bureau of Commerce and Labor, 
on Child Labor and other important matters affecting the 
wage-earner. 

Special attention is given to the relation that exists be- 
tween Theodore Roosevelt and the so-called "Nation Sav- 
ers." It is left to the sound judgment of the reader to de- 
cide whether the Roosevelt Policies are designed to sustain 
and upbuild the Republic, or whether they should be rele- 
gated and the destiny of the Republic of the United States 
of America should be entrusted to the fostering care of the 
Wall Street "Nation Savers," whom President Roosevelt 
characterizes as "Sublimated Pawnbrokers." 

Thf. At'thor. 



SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR. 

Francis Alexandre Adams, journalist, author, was born in 
New York City, May n, 1874; the son of John Quincy 
Adams. He was graduated from the New York public 
schools in 1891, entered the College of the City of New 
York; in 1897 entered the Law School of the New York 
University; edited 1890, Gotham Monthly Magazine; 1892- 
1894 Adams' Magazine; 1895 Printers' Ink; 1896-1900 on 
the editorial staff of the New York Evening Journal ; now 
associate editor on a New York newspaper. In 1898, he 
enlisted as a private in Company "M" of the 14th N. Y. 
Volunteers for the Spanish-American War service; was 
promoted to corporal, sergeant and lieutenant ; mustered 
out in November, 1898, when he resumed his journalistic 
work. Author of "Who Rules America?" "Truths About 
Trusts," "The Philippine Question," "The Transgressors," 
a political novel. Married. Residence and office, New 
York City. 



Inauguration Edition 



CONTENTS 



Preface iii 

Sketch by the Author . . . . vi 

Chapter I — Meddlers as History Makers . . 9 

Chapter II — Constitutional Government . 13 

Chapter III — Roosevelt's Work for Better Labor 

Conditions . . . 17 

Chapter IV — Successful Coal Strike Intervention 20 

Chapter V — Panics 26 



Chapter VI — Elimination and Absorption . . 29 

Chapter VII — Meeting the Crisis ... 32 

Chapter VIII — Money Monopoly ... 40 

Chapter IX — Fear of 1908 . ... 46 

Chapter X — An Appeal to the People . . 52 

Chapter XI — The Roosovelt Policies . . 57 

Chapter XII — Attacks by Twentieth Century Tories 59 

Chapter XII— Placing the Responsibility . . 66 
Chapter XIV — Roosevelt's Last Crusade . . -74 



CHAPTER I. 
Meddlers as History Makers. 

Nations grow in exactly the same way as individuals. 
None has ever been created by an edict or sprung up, 
Phoenix-like, in a day. 

The history of the world shows that the men who have 
done most for their own people and for the world at large 
have been what the short-sighted conservatives of the 
hour have termed "meddlers." 

Moses was a meddler, when he took the children of 
Israel from Egypt, and, in a march of devastation, led them 
back to the Promised Land. 

Alexander the Great was a meddler, when he carried the 
sword of Macedonia into Asia and conquered the then 
civilized world. 

Caesar was a meddler, when he established the Roman 
dominion throughout the inhabited, though semi-civilized 
countries of Europe. 

Cromwell was a meddler, when he shattered the heresy 
of the divine right of kings and established the Common- 
wealth, that to-day is still the virtual government of Great 
Britain. 



io Roosevelt. 

Washington and the Revolutionary Patriots were medd- 
lers, traitors and rebels to King George the Third, but they 
founded the United States, as the haven of the liberty-lov- 
ing men and women of the world. 

Jackson was a meddler, when he stamped out the Unit- 
ed States Banks, the early prototype of the present money 
monopoly. 

Lincoln was a meddler, when he raised his voice and 
gave his life as a sacrifice to the cause of universal free- 
dom to mankind, irrespective of race, creed or previous 
conditions of servitude. 

To-day we have evils in the body politic that must be 
corrected and the man who has been working to rectify 
thirty years of insidious encroachment on the people's rights 
by the money magnates is called a "meddler." 

Roosevelt has made history, and with the telegraph 
and the press, the nation and the world have been made 
aware of his efforts. Honest men regard him in the light 
of a leader, worthy of mention with the Makers of History. 

WHERE HAS HE SHOWN A MEDDLESOME 
HAND? 

In stamping out the evils of impure food production. 

In effectually preventing the formation of traffic mergers 
that would result in the monopoly of the railroads of the 
country. 

In carrying into execution the digging of the Panama 
Canal, which, when completed, will break the trans-con- 
tinental freight monopoly and double the strategic strength 
of the Army and Navy. 

While .other Presidents expressed an academic interest 
in the Panama or the Nicaragua Canals, none gave the 
proposition his whole-souled effort. 

President Roosevelt, in his usual emphatic manner, 



Meddlers as History Makers. u 

showed how much in earnest he was, by taking a trip to 
the Canal Zone to make a personal inspection. He realized 
that with the .Panama Canal dug, the ships of the United 
States Navy can be despatched in an emergency to either 
the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean, and thus practically double 
the defensive power of the Navy. The Canal would also 
allow of the speedy transport of troops. In sending a great 
fleet around the Cape, President Roosevelt gave the nation 
a striking lesson in how imperative it is to dig the Panama 
Canal, a short cut to the Pacific. 

In bringing about a cessation of war between Russia and 
Japan, as a signal example that this is a Christian nation, 
for the continuance of that war, surely meant greater 
wealth and power to this country, as the other powers be- 
came weaker. 

IN SETTLING THE COAL STRIKE IN PENNSYL- 
VANIA, HE ASSUMED THE OFFICE OF ARBITRA- 
TOR TO FULFILL HIS DUTY AS CHIEF EXECU- 
TIVE TO THE PEOPLE, AND CALLED THE COAL 
BARONS TO TASK FOR PRESUMING THAT THEY 
WERE DIVINELY APPOINTED TO CAUSE MISERY 
AND SUFFERING TO THE BODY POLITIC. 

In bringing successful suits against the Standard Oil 
monopoly and in getting $29,000,000 in fines imposed 
against it for violation of the law of the land. The moral 
effect of this case is as strong as though a technicality had 
not caused a higher court to order the judgment reversed. 

In bringing successful suits against the Beef Trust, the 
Tobacco Trust and against other predatory monopolies, 
that overrode the law and defied opposition, while wrestling 
extortionate prices from the people. 

In raising a voice of protest against the atrocities of Rus- 
sia in the persecution of the Jews. 



12 Roosevelt. 

In daily working to give the people of the United States 
the effective government they are entitled to under their 
Constitution. 

As an honest man working among Senators and Repre- 
sentatives, who are the minions of various ''interests," the 
President appeared to stand out as a "meddler" — but his 
meddling was for the public good, and the people realize 
this fact. So do the "interests," and hence their pleasure 
to see him retire and their vain hopes that his policies will 
not be perpetuated. 



CHAPTER II. 
Constitutional Government. 

In establishing the government of the United States the 
founders drafted a Constitution that provided for the establish- 
ment of three co-ordinate branches, viz., the Legislature, the 
Executive and the Judiciary. The application of the gov- 
ernment, built up under the Constitution, has been success- 
ful during a period of one hundred and twenty years. 

The functions of the Legislative Department are defi- 
nitely defined and are put in operation through Congress, 
in the Senate and House of Representatives. 

The Judicial Department has for its duty the eniorce- 
ment of the law, the interpretation of the Constitution and 
the statutory enactments of Congress. 

The Executive Department, of which the President is the 
chief officer, has for its duty the conduct of the government 
as a body politic. The various subdivisions of the Execu- 
tive branch of the Government have been developed as ne- 
cessity has arisen. This department, of necessity, is plastic 
and cannot go on, from year to year, in old ruts. It has had 
to expand so as to meet the requirements of a nation that 



14 Roosevelt. 

has increased in population from less than 4,000,000 in 1789 
to upwards of 85,000,000 at the present time. It has been 
obliged to develop so as to execute the governmental func- 
tion over a country that embraces more than 3,500,000 
square miles on the continent of North America, and in- 
sular possessions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with 
upwards of 9,000,000 of colonists and wards. 

What wonder that the carping critic, who compares the 
administration of Washington with that of Roosevelt, 
should have superficial examples to cite of radical differ- 
ences? In the early days of the Republic, $3,000,000 repre- 
sented the annual expenditure of the Government while 
to-day the cost of maintaining it exceeds $700,000,000 an- 
nually. 

Accompanying the expansion of the nation has been a 
material growth that has never been even approximated 
before in the history of any nation. 

When Roosevelt assumed the office of Chief Executive, 
he found the nation at the height of an era of unprecedented 
prosperity. It also had been forced into a position that 
necessitated a vigirous international policy for the United 
States, for through the Spanish-American War it had be- 
come a factor in world politics. 

Acting under the authority vested in him through the 
Constitution, he has coped with the new problems. Let the 
record of his achievements be studied. He was entrusted 
with quelling the insurrection in the Philippines ; of giving 
freedom of government to Cuba ; of establishing govern- 
ment in Porto Rico and of maintaining the government in 
the other insular possessions of the United States. 

How was this to be accomplished? By supinely asking 
for more power from Congress, or by applying the laws as 
they existed while waiting for further power? The man 



Constitutional Government. l 5 

furnished his own emphatic answer. He was the Execu- 
tive and as such acted with force, purpose and despatch. 
The' times called for positive results, and the lack of prece- 
dent did not deter him in the course he believed to be right 
and for the best interest of the people. 

Even before he became President, Roosevelt realized that 
there were sinister powers at work in this country, which 
sought to control legislation, the decisions of courts and the 
execution of the law through the several branches of the 
Executive Department. These powers centered in Wal 
Street They emanated from a clique of bankers, who had 
acquired supreme control of the nation's monetary re- 
sources since the panic of i8 73 - The high priests of the 
Temple of Finance included the Rockefellers, Harnman, 
Morgan and the eight or ten other multimillionaires in the 
Wall Street ring. 

ROOSEVELT OWED THESE MEN NO DEFER- 
ENCE OR DEBT. HE WAS PRESIDENT IN HIS 
OWN RIGHT AND BEGAN A CAMPAIGN OF FEAR- 
LESS AGGRESSION AGAINST THE ABUSES OF 
WEALTH. 

From 1901 to the present day, the so-called "Captains of 
Finance" have successively attempted to coerce him; by 
bribery, in the shape of ill-feigned support in the 1904 cam- 
paign, by trickery, and now by opposition in the open. The 
Money Monopoly has been aligned against him, because he 
has dared to point the searchlight of investigation against 
the system of organized national pelf. Now that their tem- 
ple is toppling on their heads, they cry that "Roosevelt is 
to blame." 

A great English statesman has said that a nation cannot 
be indicted. So it may be stated that the Executive, who 
represented the will of 85,000,000 people, cannot be indicted. 



1 6 Roosevelt. 

Roosevelt has the support to-day of the vast majority of the 
citizens of this country in all of his policies, and in none has 
he a greater following than in his policy to mete justice to 
millionaire malefactors. 

He was within his constitutional rights in his efforts to 
enforce the law, and honest men were with him. The 
majesty of the law is best exemplified by its proper en- 
forcement. 

THE MONEY MONOPOLY DAILY FLOUTS THE 
LAW THAT IT OCCASIONALLY FRANTICALLY 
INVOKES TO PROTECT ITS LOOT. 

It may be set down as a fact for all Americans to consider 
that the President made a brave and sustained fight against 
predatory wealth and trust-made law. His chief support 
came from the openly expressed approval of the people and 
his one and safe weapon was the Constitution of the United 
States, which he used, as it was intended to be used, as a 
"Big Stick," to protect the innocent and crush the guilty. 



CHAPTER III. 
Roosevelt's Work for Better Labor Conditions. 

In looking for a proper measure of the work that Roose- 
velt has accomplished in the interests of labor, no one act 
can be selected, nor can a few of the most important events 
in his career be studied. It is necessary to review his rec- 
ord over a period of the past twenty years to arrive at a true 
appreciation of his purposes and their accomplishment. 

When he was a young man in New York politics, he 
stood ready at all times to work for measures in the Assem- 
bly that were in the interests of those who toiled with their 
hands. This attitude of his and his ability to draw the sup- 
port of others to his views attracted general attention and 
he was selected as a Commissioner of Civil Service by Pres- 
ident Harrison. This post he held with distinction, and 
during his incumbency many reforms were inaugurated. 
So conspicuous was his service, that when Grover Cleveland 
was re-elected he saw no reason for removing Mr. Roose- 
velt and he was retained in office. 

When Mr. Roosevelt was appointed as one of the Police 
Commissioners he enforced his views of fair play in the 



18 Roosevelt. 

Police Department, and the patrolmen were accorded every 
advantage that was compatible with good discipline. While 
a strict disciplinarian, Mr. Roosevelt realized that the men 
who acted as guardians of the peace were entitled to fair 
treatment. He did effective work in raising the moral tone 
of the force and of eliminating graft and oppression. 

In studying the career of Roosevelt, one is brought to the 
conclusion that all of his varied activities were designed to 
fit him for the great office he was finally destined to occupy. 
After a conspicuous and successful term as President of the 
Police Commission, he was appointed Assistant Secretary 
of the Navy. This opened a wide field of activity for his 
energy. He at once familiarized himself with the affairs of 
the naval establishment and made many recommendations 
for the improvement of the condition of both the enlisted 
men and the civilian workmen in the Navy. It was largely 
through the efficiency of his work that the Navy was in a 
state of preparedness when the Spanish-American War was 
declared. The Navy was in shape to cope with the work 
before it. He lacked the technical training to fit him for a 
line officer's position in the Navy ; otherwise he would un- 
questionably have sought for such an office, for he is a man 
of action and could not rest content in time of war with 
doing routine work. 

He secured a commission as Lieutenant Colonel of the 
regiment of cavalry known as "Roosevelt's Rough Riders," 
and played a conspicuous part in the campaign in Cuba. 
Here, as in all of his previous positions, his thoughtfulness 
for the men who do the work was plainly shown. He had 
the devoted affection of his regiment. There was no bar- 
rier between the officer and the trooper. No lack of disci- 
pline was countenanced, but the enlisted men all felt that 
in Roosevelt they had not only a leader but a friend. 



Roosevelt's Work for Better Labor Conditions. 19 

The instinctive love of fair play in the man led him to be 
one of the number to sign the "Round Robin" calling for a 
stop to the scandal of furnishing impure food to the men in 
the Army. Just how deep an impression his experiences in 
the Spanish-American War made on him can be understood 
when the prosecution of the Beef Trust is recalled. When 
the occasion presented itself, he dealt with that octopus as 
it deserved to be dealt with. He not only avenged the sol- 
diers who were sacrificed by "embalmed beef," but he rid 
the markets of this country and the world of the deleterious 
products of the beef combine. This stands as one of the 
greatest achievements in his career. It has been the means 
of giving the consumers, chiefly the humble working men 
and their families, pure canned foods. 

No doubt can be expressed as to the earnest purpose 
which Roosevelt holds to improve the condition of labor. 
He has been outspoken and has embodied his ideas in con- 
crete form in messages to Congress. In his last message 
he devoted considerable attention to the Employers' Lia- 
bility Act, which it would be well for every man to study. 
In his concise summary of this much-needed reform, he 
voiced the wishes of the millions who daily risk their lives 
in the pursuit of their work. 



CHAPTER IV. 
Successful Coal Strike Intervention. 

Through Roosevelt's recommendations to Congress, the 
Bureau of Commerce and Labor has come to be a powerful 
factor for the protection of the men and women who toil 
for a living. It was through his efforts that labor was dig- 
nified by having a Cabinet officer appointed who has as his 
special work the care of the rights of labor. 

While a staunch friend of the laborer, Mr. Roosevelt has 
never for a moment receded from his position that labor 
must obey the law to the letter, just as he insists that cap- 
ital must be made to respect and obey it. When occasions 
have arisen that called for drastic action, he has not fal- 
tered. The riotous actions of the miners of Colorado called 
forth his condemnation, and the strong hand of the*Army 
was invoked to quell murder and riot. 

His record shows that he was a firm believer in arbitra- 
tion as the most effective means of settling labor and cap- 
ital disputes. It was by his intervention that the coal 
strike in Pennsylvania was settled in 1902. 



Successful Coal Strike Intervention. 21 

A contemporaneous account of the coal strike and the 
arbitration of the difficulty sets forth the case as follows : 

"During almost the whole of the year 1902 the country 
was disturbed by the preliminaries, the progress and the 
consequence of the anthracite strike. Before 1900 the con- 
ditions of employment in the anthracite field had been regu- 
lated by local arrangements in each colliery or group of col- 
lieries. In 1899 the United Mine Workers of America, 
which had already succeeded in unionizing the bituminous 
field, with annual trade agreements between the employers 
and the workmen, undertook to organize the anthracite 
miners. This effort was successful to a considerable ex- 
tent, and in 1900 a strike was declared for higher wages and 
other advantages. The operators wished to resist this 
movement, but they were urged to yield by Senator Hanna, 
who warned them that a prolonged strike at that time would 
endanger the election of McKinley. Accordingly, they re- 
luctantly made concessions — not, however, by recognizing 
the union, but by posting up notices of a 10 per cent, in- 
crease in wages and other benefits in the various collieries. 
In the spring of 1901 the president of the United Mine 
Workers, Mr. John Mitchell, tried to induce the operators to 
enter a conference with his organization for the purpose of 
agreeing upon a wage scale for the following year. In this 
he failed, but the presidents of the various companies in- 
formally agreed to continue the existing advance in force un- 
til April, 1902. On February 14, 1902, the United Mine 
Workers invited the operators to a joint conference at 
Scranton on March 12, to form a wage scale for the year 
ending March 31, 1903. The presidents of the companies 
promptly declined, giving their reasons at length. In the 
absence of political excitement they thought the time op- 
portune for testing the strength of the union, and they de- 



22 Roosevelt. 

termined to make no concessions. The miners' convention 
met at Shamokin in March, and demanded an increase in 
wages and an eight-hour day for men employed on a time 
basis, the weighing of coal for payments by the amount 
mined and a uniform rate of wages. They invoked the 
good offices of the Civic Federation, and resolved to allow 
only three days' work a week after April i until the dispute 
should be settled. 

"This was one of the very intentions for which the Indus- 
trial Department of the Civic Federation had been created 
three months before, and as that body contained some of the 
leading representatives of capital and labor, there seemed 
every reason to believe that its intervention would be suc- 
cessful. Its chairman, Senator Hanna, promptly took the 
matter up and brought the miners and operators together. 
Long discussions followed, but no agreement was reached. 
Finally, on May 8, Mr. Mitchell sent a long dispatch to each 
of the corporation presidents, proposing that the questions 
in dispute be submitted to an arbitration committee of five 
persons selected by the Industrial Department of the Na- 
tional Civic Federation, the award to be binding for a year. 
In case that offer proved unacceptable, Mr. Mitchell sug- 
gested that Archbishop Ireland, Bishop Potter and one 
other person to be selected by them should make an investi- 
gation into the conditions prevailing in the anthracite field, 
their recommendations to be accepted by both parties. Both 
these propositions were curtly rejected, and from this time 
the operators adopted the policy of having no further deal- 
ings with Mr. Mitchell. 

"On May 14 the United Mine Workers met in convention 
at Hazleton, and the next day the strike, which had already 
broken out, was officially declared. The demands of the 
strikers were: 

1. An increase of 20 per cent, in the pay of miners work- 



Successful Coal Strike Intervention. 23 

ing by the ton— about 40 per cent, of the whole number. 

2. An eight-hour day for per diem employes, being equiv- 
alent to a reduction of about 20 per cent, in working time 
without change of wages. 

3. Payment by weight to be based on a ton of 2,240 
pounds. 

"The men were intrenched behind the law requiring every 
miner in the anthracite field to have a certificate of compe- 
tence, granted after examination, and based on at least two 
years' experience as a laborer. As there were only about 
40,000 holders of such certificates, and practically all of 
them belonged to the union, it was impossible to operate 
the mines as long as they held out, and the contest settled 
down into one of endurance. One hundred and forty-five 
thousand men were idle. An attempt was made to call out 
the bituminous miners in a sympathetic strike, but this 
proposition was rejected in a general convention of the 
United Mine Workers held at Indianapolis on June 18. At 
first the public watched the contest without alarm, but as 
the summer passed and the stocks of coal on hand became 
depleted the popular uneasiness grew. September brought 
a general scarcity, verging upon famine. By October the 
country was facing a calamity. The price of anthracite 
went up to $20 and even $30 per ton, and only small lots 
could be obtained at those rates. Political pressure was 
brought to bear upon the operators, but they defiantly re- 
fused to yield an inch. At last President Roosevelt re- 
solved to end the intolerable situation. He had already, in 
June, directed Labor Commissioner Carroll D. Wright to 
investigate the causes of the dispute, and he finally invited 
President Mitchell and the representatives of the operators 
to meet him in conference on October 3. Mr. Mitchell of- 
fered on the part of the miners to accept arbitration by a 
commission selected by the President. The operators re- 



24 Roosevelt. 

•jected this proposition, and their whole attitude appeared 
so offensive as to make them the objects of intense popular 
indignation. They insisted that the whole matter was one 
of protection, and said that if troops enough were furnished 
them they could operate the mines. A considerable 
force of militia was already on duty, but on October 6 Gov- 
ernor Stone called out the entire National Guard of Penn- 
sylvania, numbering 10,000 men. It soon became evident 
that miners could not be obtained under any conditions, and 
the public excitement ran so high that it became evident 
something would have to be done. Accordingly, Mr. J. 
Pierpont Morgan intervened to end the conflict. He held 
an interview with Mr. Root, the Secretary of War, on board 
his yacht, the Corsair, on October nth, conferred with Pres- 
ident Baer of the Reading the next day, and went to Wash- 
ington the day after, where he discussed the situation with 
the President and Secretary Root. He offered on behalf of 
the operators to accept the arbitration of a commission to be 
appointed by the President, and to consist of : 

1. An Army or Navy engineer officer. 

2. An expert mining engineer, not connected in any way 
with coal mining properties. 

3. One of the Judges of the United States Court of the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 

4. A man of prominence, eminent as a sociologist. 

5. A man who by active participation in mining and sell- 
ing coal was familiar with the physical and commercial 
features of the business. 

"The findings of this commission were to be binding for at 
least three years. 

"This proposition was accepted with the understanding 
that the President would exercise a large discretion in the 
selection of commissioners, and a convention of the United 
Mine Workers at Wilkesbarre on October 20 declared the 



Successful Coal Strike Intervention. 25 

strike off. Mining was resumed on October 23. As mem- 
bers of the Commission the President appointed U. S. Court 
Judge George Gray, Carroll D. Wright, Thomas H. Wat- 
kins, General John M. Wilson, E. W. Parker, E. E. Clark 
and Rt. Rev. John L. Spalding." 

With the directness that is characteristic of the man's entire 
life, he brought about a settlement of a strike that not only 
affected the miners of Pennsylvania, but was a menace to the 
interests of a large percentage of the people of a score of 
States. Just as he later used his good offices to end the san- 
guinary war between Russia and Japan, he took the necessary 
bold and unprecedented step to compel labor and capital to 
arbitrate. This was another signal example of the man's fear- 
less pursuit of the course he believed to be right. 

And in the closing days of his second administration he 
strove with all the earnestness that was in him to bring about 
an adequate measure of protection for all who labor. He 
worked for the Employer's Liability Act, and is still deter- 
mined that this measure shall become operative in every State. 
It looks to the enforcement of proper regulations by employers 
for the protection of those who work in factories, on railroads, 
in the mines, or on ships. The opposition which this measure 
has met comes from those who are the loudest in demanding 
protection for what they term their "vested rights." 

These self-same men who disputed the right of Federal inter- 
vention to secure the rights of labor to adequate protection are 
quick to ask for Federal injunctions to protect their property. 

The power of the Government to protect both labor and cap- 
ital is equal, and as the crowning achievement of his office as 
President of all the people, Roosevelt was working to see 
justice meted to all. No man or woman who knows what it is 
to work for a living can have other than the highest regard 
for the President, who placed labor where it belongs — on an 
equal footing with capital. 



CHAPTER V. 
Panics. 

What is more natural, in a country of the most exhaustless 
resources of any in the world, where prosperity must go hand- 
in-hand with the development of such resources, that some 
should be more prosperous than others? What is more natural, 
what is more inevitable, than that those who are cleverest and 
are allowed a freefoot in the accumulation and cornering of 
money — what is more natural, than that such as these should 
become financial monopolists and literally "Kings of Finance" ? 

It is not the purpose of this publication to assume that the 
money monopolist is essentially, naturally and instinctively a 
bad man. It is simply human nature when a man feels himself 
literally a king of financial circles, with absolute dominion over 
a great part of a great Nation's resources, that that man should 
be tempted at least, even though he might not yield to this 
temptation, to abuse that power. 

To these same men may be attributed much benefit to our 
Great Country, in hastening the development of her resources, 
but where has there ever been a monarch, be he King of 
Finance or a Political Ruler over his people, but has at some 



Panics. 27 

time been tempted, yes, and yielded to the temptation of abus- 
ing his oower? 

It can be demonstrated by documentary proof that the panic 
of 1873, the panic of 1893 and the so-called panic of 1907, have 
been artificially created by the money monopolists for their 
self-aggrandizement. 

In 1873 the nation was hampered by a lack of circulating 
media, and was virtually on a paper money basis. The cry 
was raised for a resumption of specie payment. Financiers 
took advantage of the monetary agitation, and by concerted 
action in hoarding their money created an acute stringency. 
This, as it will always do, caused universal depression in com- 
merce and wrought untold loss to the nation. But the nation, 
the people, could not be crushed by such conditions. The peo- 
ple rebuilt their fortunes. 

In 1893 the same class of money changers saw that the 
nation was again in a condition that would permit them to 
create an artificial panic. The population and the activities of 
the country had outgrown the volume of circulating media. 
The bankers again "cornered" the money market, and the panic 
of 1893 was precipitated by the fell action of not more than ten 
financial "Monarchs" of Wall Street. 

From 1896, when McKinley was elected, to the present day, 
the country has grown in population at a rapid rate, but money 
has not been tight, gold has been brought from the earth in 
abundant supplies to make the parity of per capita circulation 
of money normal. 

What, then, was the cause of the 1907 panic? It was pre- 
cipitated by the men who have been made to feel the power of 
the "law," as enforced by President Roosevelt. They sought 
to discredit him by creating national distress on the eve of a 
Presidential campaign. 

It was no new story to the Wall Street band of Financial 



28 Roosevelt. 

Highwaymen, that large banking institutions were in bad 
shape, that they had loaned large sums on questionable or 
worthless securities. The action of the Clearing House, which 
is the tool of the Big Wall Street Captains of Finance, in call- 
ing a halt on the Mercantile National, and, later on, the Bank 
of Commerce stopping its clearance of a prominent trust com- 
pany, were both engendered by a craven desire on the part of 
the "interests" to get control of the enormously valuable cop- 
per properties, which were not then within their grasp. 

The precipitation of a national panic was incidental, but 
not to be disregarded. Did it not serve to discredit Roose- 
velt with the people? So argued the "Saviours of the Na- 
tion," the "Kings of Finance." 



CHAPTER VI. 

Elimination and Absorption. 

Ten men created the panic of 1893. Two men, controlling 
more than $4,000,000,000 in American securities and cash in 
National and State banks, insurance companies and trust com- 
panies, created the panic of 1907 for the sole purpose of per- 
petuating their power over the national resources. If they had 
succeeded in making the American people "scuttle" the Ship 
of State and destroy their own prosperity, these two men and 
their associates would have added the billions of wealth to their 
already fabulous fortunes. They sought to become absolute 
dictators of the Nation's future, and to turn it into a govern- 
ment that should be a "Republic" in name only; that should 
be subservient to them — the two "Monarchs" of finance. 

These men, Rockefeller and Morgan, and their associates 
have pursued a persistent course for thirty years, looking to 
the final control of all the great activities of this land. 

First— The oil industry was captured, as the recent testi- 
mony in the Standard Oil suits has shown, by lawbreaking 
methods. 

Second— The railroad transportation facilities of the coun- 



3° Roosevelt. 

try have been acquired by illicit merger and by illegal freight 
rebate methods. 

Third — The coal fields have been appropriated. 

Fourth — The Lake steamship lines were acquired by the 
"interests" thus controlling the rich iron ore of the Superior 
region and its transportation. 

Fifth— The Steel Industry was capitalized at $1,100,000,000 
and all the ore fields monopolized. 

Sixth— The Electrical Industry was combined in the General 
Electric Company, to control light and power in all parts of the 
United States. 

Seventh— The "Nation Savers" acquired by confiscation the 
insurance funds of the country for a huge working capital. 

Eighth— The "Nation Savers" secured control of the small 
banks of the country by holding the national purse strings in 
Wall Street and by the summary power of their clearing 
houses. 

Ninth — The "Nation Savers" used their enormous power to 
capture the copper mines as the final link in the chain of elimi- 
nation of competitors. 

It mattered not to these absorptionists that a panic was pre- 
cipitated. This served a purpose in their national control 
scheme. It has given them a chance to close their hands on 
whatever remained of the national resources, by forcing all but 
their chosen few associates to put their stocks, bonds and busi- 
ness interests over the "Pawnbroker's" counter at Broad and 
Wall streets. 

During the panic days of October and November, 1907, 
every form of national security was depreciated to the lowest 
records of years. The holders, who found their bank accounts 
tied up or the banks unwilling or unable to extend them 
commercial accommodations, had to sacrifice their stocks, 



Elimination and Absorption. 31 

bonds and the controlling interest in their enterprise to get 
"cash" from the "Nation Savers" in Wall Street. 

The tenth great stride in the march of this "Band of Nation 
Wreckers" was clearly defined. They sought to continue and 
aggravate the artificial panic, so as to defeat the election of a 
Roosevelt man in 1908. If they had succeeded, it would have 
meant that with open eyes and full consciousness, the Amer- 
ican people had given themselves, body and soul, to the 
Absorptionists. 

The people have permitted competition in the great in- 
dustries to be displaced by elimination to a basis of complete 
monopoly. They have permitted the government to lapse into 
such a state of inertia that a plain, straightforward, honest, 
fearless, active and progressive President, who looked only to 
enforce the law on rich and poor alike, has been pictured as a 
scourge by the Financial Band, and the people are asked to 
believe this characterization is true. 

It now remains to be seen, if the absorption of the Govern- 
ment, as a whole, can be effected by Morgan and Rockefeller, 
and popular government be eliminated by absorption into the 
control of the "Two Saviours of the Country and their Associ- 
ates," for personal profit only. 

If the new administration, under President William Howard 
Taft, stands firmly by the Roosevelt policies, as the majority 
of the people expect and are confident will be the case, the 
Government of the United States will be kept true to its orig- 
inal purpose of being a popular form of government, based 
upon the eternal principles of equal rights to all and special 
favors to none. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Meeting the Crisis. 

In the late financial crisis Roosevelt, acting through the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, showed characteristic promptness. 
While the bankers in Wall Street were promising aid to the 
banks and trust companies that were in straits, Roosevelt au- 
thorized the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Cortelyou, to de- 
posit large sums of money in the various national banks of the 
country to relieve the shortage of currency. Not alone was 
this step taken, but an effort was at once made to furnish addi- 
tional and permanent currency in the form of certificates issued 
against Panama Canal bonds and a draft made on the emer- 
gency bond issue that was authorized by Congress in 1898. In 
the President's taking advantage of this emergency currency 
law he at once invoked the harsh criticism of some members of 
his own party and bankers. The legality of the step was ques- 
tioned, and opposition Senators called for resolutions looking 
into the constitutionality of this "fiat" money. 

It is always true that whenever a man of action takes a de- 
cided step he encounters the opposition of weaklings, and 
causes unjust criticism of his acts by those who view them' from 



Meeting the Crisis. 33 

too close range. From the time that President Roosevelt took 
office he did things which at once caused a storm of applause 
or protest from the people at large. Finally their judgments 
on his acts have been those of approval, and his record shows 
achievements in the popular cause in all departments of the 
government. It is in the period covered by his last term that 
the most drastic measures were forced through by his single 
efforts. It was his advocacy of a Pure Food Law that com- 
pelled Congress to pass the measure which now protects the 
consumer at home and abroad. At the time that he was caus- 
ing his investigation of the Chicago slaughter-houses, and 
plants in other cities, he met the solid opposition of the Senate 
and also a determined opposition in the House of Representa- 
tives. The large packers were using whatever influence and 
money could do towards preventing a fair investigation and 
an open report. It is such characteristic efforts on Roosevelt's 
part similar to the one above mentioned that caused him to be 
caricatured and written about by the press as "a swinger of 
the big stick." It is noticeable, however, that his efforts were 
not misdirected. In the recent crisis, which affected the mone- 
tary affairs of the nation, the President could not have acted 
by half measures. To have done so would have only resulted 
in a condition paralleled by that of 1896. He determined upon 
his course with the rapid decision of a general reviewing his 
enemy's position on the field, and decided that a message to the 
people advocating a Central Bank would bring the recalcitrant 
bankers to terms. Those who watched the press closely will 
recall that J. Pierpont Morgan made a midnight visit to Wash- 
ington and was admitted to the White House for a special con- 
ference with the President, to discuss the advisability of estab- 
lishing a Central Bank. The features suggested by this change 
were carefully gone into, and, as the leading factor in the finan- 
cial world, Mr. Morgan presented the bankers' side of the case. 



34 Roosevelt. 

It would have meant a total disruption of the pres anking 

methods for the nation to have returned to the coi met of a 
bank, and all the monied interests of the country awaited the 
result of this interview with keen anxiety. Mr. Roosevelt had 
used one of his oft-employed methods of bringing the monopo- 
lists to terms. He had threatened them with a measure which 
would have meant their extermination or their retirement to a 
position of minor importance, and, knowing his determined 
character, Mr. Morgan, as spokesman for the financial mo- 
nopolists, acepted his terms. These included an instant change 
of policy on the part of the banks in regard to hoarding money. 
President Roosevelt pointed out that the relief money which 
he had authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to turn into 
the banks had been misappropriated to the extent of being 
used by the banks, not to relieve the needs of depositors, but 
to swell their bank reserves, and to be used for funds in specu- 
lation, either direct or by loans made to stock speculators. He 
insisted that, unless the banks made a determined and satisfac- 
tory effort to place the money intelligently, he would force the 
issue of a Central Bank. Since the return of Mr. Morgan to 
New York from that visit the banks have been more liberal, 
and have returned to their usual methods of business. The 
commercial paper of the country is being discounted at normal 
rates, and the effects of the monetary panic of October, 1907, 
have passed away. 

A student of financial conditions in America, however, knows 
that the relief is of a transitory character. At any time it still 
remains within the power of Morgan and Rockefeller to pre- 
cipitate another panic. Their hold on the money of the coun- 
try is unbroken, and it is merely a case of securing their prom- 
ise to let money take its normal course that was exacted by the 
President. The "truckling" of Morgan has properly been 
characterized as the move of a shrewd financier. 

...liv.. 



Meeting the Crisis. 35 

The positive and permanent relief which the United States 
Government should afford the people is through a currency 
that is not at the mercy of the banks. The President in his 
late messages to Congress clearly signified his willingness to 
consider any proposition that comes from the people looking 
for an elastic currency. This word "elastic" has been very 
loosely applied to money in the campaigns of 1896 and 1900, 
and is now in the public mind as a misconception. Elastic cur- 
rency is just as dangerous as inflated currency, and is meralr 
another name for this species of money. What the country 
wants is an adequate supply of money that has a fixed value, 
and that is not subject to fluctuations through manipulation of 
bankers. When there is no premium on hoarding money the 
banks are always ready to loan it to those conducting commer- 
cial enterprises at a reasonable and proper rate of interest. As 
the finances of the country are now conducted there is, and 
there must remain, if this system is perpetuated, a handsome 
profit to the banks controlling large cash reserves. The iniqui- 
tous effects of the clearing house organization of the country 
are being felt, and some change in this feature of modern bank- 
ing is urgently advocated by those who have the interests of the 
country at heart. While ostensibly used as a means of facili- 
tating banking, the Clearing House in New York and in all 
other large cities has become a weapon which can strike down 
either members of the Clearing House or outside banks. This 
is a menace which the people have not fully realized, and it was 
only when the plenary power of the Clearing House was shown 
in October, 1907, that the people, through the press, were fully 
informed as to how arbitrary this organization had become. 
Without adequate cause the Clearing House took the step te 
demand the instant resignations of the president and directors 
of the Mercantile National Bank. This was forced upon t*- 
bank by the ultimatum that, if the demand was not complk- 



36 Roosevelt. 

complied with, the Clearing House would cease to clear for 
that bank, which would mean its immediate suspension. Such 
action on the part of the Clearing House would never have 
been taken had it not been dictated by the dominant factors in 
Wall Street, viz., Morgan and Rockefeller. The banks they 
control are leading spirits in the Clearing House, and it was to 
fulfil an ulterior motive that this action was taken. This mo- 
tive, as previously alluded to, was the crushing of certain cop- 
per interests and the crippling of the Westinghouse interests. 
The facts in this "1907 panic" are all clear, and it remains for 
the people to give the needed encouragement and support to 
the public officers to take the necessary steps to bring the na- 
tion's looters to book. 

In his messages the President made recommendation for a 
National Savings Bank, which is another question that sorely 
affects the banks. They are opposed to the adoption of this 
sensible proposition, which has been successfully tried and is 
now in operation by all European governments, because it 
means placing in the hands of the government an enormous 
volume of money which would otherwise be left in their hands 
to "juggle" with. The proposition which is now termed 
radical in Roosevelt's last message is so regarded only be- 
cause people are inclined to exaggerate the importance of 
present conditions. 

There is nothing in his message that has approached in im- 
portance the problem involved in the Louisiana Purchase which 
Jefferson brought about. The territory acquired and subse- 
quent development of States embraced under the purchase has 
proved the most beneficial thing that has occurred since the 
formation of the United States Government. At the time it 
was regarded as a wild scheme, which involved merely the ex- 
penditure of nearly $15,000,000 of the growing country's funds. 



Meeting the Crisis. 37 

To-day the value of the land embraced in the original Louis- 
iana territory is incalculable. 

Another subject which found its first utterance in a message 
to Congress was the Alaska Purchase. This also met with the 
strongest opposition, and none of the near-sighted statesmen 
could see any profit coming from the purchase of a barren 
waste in the extreme north of the continent. Since the dis- 
covery of gold in Alaska this territory has become one of the 
richest of our special possessions. A similar story is to be told 
of the territory acquired through the Mexican War. The 
President's message suggesting such action on the part of the 
Government was ridiculed as chimerical, but subsequent events 
have proved that it was another step in the line of destiny. 

TO-DAY ROOSEVELT STANDS BEFORE THE PEO- 
PLE AS A MAN WHO CONCEIVED IDEAS, NOT 
ONLY FOR THE PRESENT, BUT FOR THE FUTURE 
WELFARE OF THE COUNTRY. THE NARROW CRIT- 
ICISM OF THE MAN DOES NOT IN ANY WAY DE- 
TRACT FROM THE AFFECTION WHICH HE HOLDS 
IN THE HEARTS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. HE 
MET THE CRITICISMS OF TE HOUR AS ONLY A 
MAN OF ENERGY, DECISION AND COURAGE 
COULD. IT WAS NO TIME TO WEIGH TECHNICAL- 
ITIES AND STUDY NICETIES EITHER OF POLITI- 
CAL OR SOCIAL ETIQUETTE. WORK HAD TO BE 
DONE; AND, WITH HIS ACCUSTOMED DIRECT- 
NESS, THE PRESIDENT ACCOMPLISHED IT. 

One of the author's objects in this publication is to get the 
facts before readers who are unacquainted with conditions 
through reading only garbled accounts in the subsidized press. 
After studying the career of Roosevelt and the achievements 
of his two administrations, the reader who is not warped by 
prejudice and personal consideration must come to the conclu- 



38 Roosevelt. 

sion that he is the one dominant factor in the politics of to- 
day who is working untrammeled for the public interests. At 
the termination of his administration he has the praise and 
support of the people. 

As the expenditures of the Government have increased to 
a point where upwards of $700,000,000 will be required in the 
course of a year or two, the necessity of raising revenue from 
other sources than the tariff has come up for consideration, 
and the President adopted another of the Democratic measures 
advocated in 1896 and 1900, viz., the income tax. He also 
advocated the imposing of an inheritance tax, both of which 
sources of revenue every other nation in the world, our own 
included, has collected. If these measures find a place upon 
the statute books in the Taft administration, it will mean a 
great increase in the revenue of the country, and would firmly 
establish the size of many of the "swollen fortunes" against 
which President Roosevelt took issue. He pointed out in his 
messages that a tax on an inheritance is not to be construed 
^6 a tax on thrift. Where an inheritance is passed on to the 

natives of a deceased man or woman they receive something 
ior which they did not toil, and it is working no hardship on 
them, in the sense of depriving them of their self-gained wealth, 
to impose an inheritance tax. In regard to the income tax, the 
President defined his position as favorable to its collection as 
soon as a bill making it constitutional can be drafted and 
passed through Congress. The evasion of paying an income 
tax through perjury is a course which, under the strict admin- 
istration of the law, could not be adopted by millionaires with 
impunity. Roosevelt came out clearly in all of his recent utter- 
ances as advocating a change in the laws of the nation and 
States, so as to make it possible for juries to find verdicts of 
imprisonment for offenders against the lazv. He pointed out 
clearly that the average juryman to-day. while ready to fine 



Meeting the Crisis. .}9 

corporations, does not feel justified in imposing a sentence on 
individual members of corporations because of some infrac- 
tion of the law which present business methods look on as nor- 
mal. It would certainly be part and parcel of any income tax 
and inheritance tax law that evasions of its provisions would 
put the offender in a position to be not only fined but impris- 
oned. It would deprive the judges of the power to make de- 
cisions that fail to carry out the spirit of the common law and 
would make equivocation on the part of the judges an open 
scandal, where now it can be regarded only as a breach of 
faitk. Decision bv orbiter dicta must cease. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Money Monopoly. 

From the earliest days down to the present the history of 
various nations and our own shows that the possessor of 
money, rather than the holder of wealth in any other form, has 
been the ruler. Money is mobile, and the possessor of it is'able 
at all times to work to better advantage than the man who 
possesses wealth in the form of land, buildings or any other 
form of chattel. 

In ancient times the danger of collecting money was fully 
realized, and no encouragement was given to individuals to 
amass large fortunes representing either gold or silver. The 
rulers retained the full power of controlling the monev of the 
country, and in this way panics and financial disturbances in 
the early stages of the world were unknown. Even in the days 
of Greece and Rome, while individual fortunes were piled up, 
they were not represented in money but were comprised of 
estates and the revenue derived from taxation. 

It is only within a comparatively short time that banks have 
evolved and have come into absolute possession of the money 
of the various nations. From being factors in the easy conduct 



Money Monopoly. 41 

of business the banks have become a power that wrests heavy 
tribute from all classes of commercial enterprise. It is a funda- 
mental principle that the only safe custodian of a monopoly is 
the general government. This is especially true if the govern- 
ment is ansewerable to the people, as is the case in a republic. 

It takes no careful study to discover that the opposition of 
the banks of this country to government control is based upon 
the principle of self-preservation. If the government was 
effective and successful in conducting the financial business of 
the country, the extortions of the banks could no longer be 
made, and one of their reasons for existence would end. The 
monopoly of a nation's money, which is now completely ex- 
emplified in the conditions in this country, is an evil which calls 
for immediate removal. If a drastic measure is needed in 
order to change this condition is should be taken; for tem- 
porizing will only aggravate the condition. 

In 1896, after the free silver campaign, merchants and all 
other men interested in the upbuilding of the nation, breathed 
a deep sigh of relief that the finances of the country had been 
"rescued." Soon after the nation was firmly set upon a gold 
basis, and the money question, to all intents and purposes, was 
buried. But, like Banquo's ghost, it has come to haunt the 
bankers at their feast. 

Now, with the gold standard rigdly enforced and bankers in 
full control, the people are asking for some form of "elastic" 
currency. The silver coinage advocates regarded their propa- 
ganda as the proper solution for an elastic currency; the 
greenback advocates were certain that their solution was the 
right one; and to-day, the advocates of an elastic currency, 
based on a stretch of the public credit with neither government 
stamp nor metal value back of it, regard their theory as the 
right one. Again it must be impressed upon those who seek a 



4 2 Roosevelt. 

tion that no temporizing can possibly be attempted on a na- 
tion's money without bringing disaster. 

Money has but three distinct and well-defined purposes. It 
is a measure of values, a medium of exchange and a basis for 
future payment. The ideal dollar is the one which is worth 
one hundred cents in accomplishing all three of these func- 
tions. It is rYKlimenttary in ethics and in justice that the dol- 
>lm sfeouldibe. % fairj gauge of values; that it should be worth 
one hundred n fents intrinsically, and should have a purchas- 
ing power of an equal amount. It is also proper that as a me- 
dium of exchange, if it is accepted in place of an article, that 
the holder of the dollar, who is giving up his property, should 
subsequently be able to make an exchange for an equivalent 
sum in merchandise ; and finally, as a basis for future payment, 
it is essential that the dollar should have its face value, no more 
and no less, otherwise either the lender or the borrower must 
suffer. 

The banks in their proposals for an elastic currency simply 
advocate the policy of certificates representing money to be 
transported in the easiest manner to points where urgent de- 
mand for increased circulating media are made. This would 
still leave them in full possession of a "corner" on the money 
market, and their present profits for manipulating it would 
continue. High money — that is, money which stands at a pre- 
mium — is as pernicious as depreciated currency. The only 
class of people who could be benefited by an "inflated" dollar 
is the class of people living on a fixed income. All other men 
and women, including far more than 95 per cent, of the popu- 
lation of this country, have to work for their dollars in the 
form of wages or profit on their labor in the field or in the shop. 
It is, therefore, clear that in order to secure a hundred-cent 
dollar they have to pay one hundred and more cents in labor. 
In other words, they are buying "dear money." Of course, 



Money Monopoly. 43 

tke bankers, who have the accumulated savings of the people 
to lend out, always advocate high money, as it is not their 
funds, but the savings of others, that they are operating with, 
and, when money is high, they get the increased rate of interest. 
The whole world can be generally divided into two classes, 
viz., the producer and the idler. Among the producers it is 
essential that they should have a dollar or some form of money 
that has a fixed value. The evil effects of an inflated currency, 
such as the present dollar of the United States, has become 
manifest in the working of a loss to the holders of mortgages, 
bonds, both United States, State, municipal and railway bonds, 
real estate and industrials and all classes of business enterprise 
and merchandise. As soon as money is up for discussion the 
holders of it become panic-stricken, and refuse to let money 
run in the ordinary channels of business. This causes a sharp 
advance in discount rates, and all the multifarious operations 
of business are thrown out of gear. This is, at present, the 
cause of the closing down of mills, the curtailment in all lines 
of production, the depreciation in values of railway securities 
and in all classes of investments. It is no comfort to a business 
man to assure him that the hundred thousand dollars ($100,- 
ooo) worth of railway securities which he bought in 1901 or 
1902, or even up to October, 1907, will be worth one hundred 
thousand dollars ($100,000) in a year or so, when business 
conditions have become properly readjusted. He found him- 
self in 1908 with this one hundred thousand dollars ($100,- 
000) worth of "gilt-edged" railway stock, on which he could 
not realize more than seventy thousand dollars ($70,000), or 
seventy-five thousand dollars ($75>ooo). Even to get that 
sum he was obliged to part with his stock, as the banks were 
not lending on collateral. This meant the loss of one-quarter 
of his fortune by the unnecessary shattering of public credit. 
In any such panic as the one we have just passed through, 



44 Roosevelt. 

In any such panic as the one we have just passed through, 
if the bankers were in a position where they used their own 
money, they would be the sufferers ; but, as they use the peo- 
pl'esfunds, they profit both by the heavy decline in values and 
the gradual recovery. They are there in Wall Street as "coin 
clippers," and they take their profit coming and going. 

On a basis such as the currency of the Bank of England, its 
notes are acceptable throughout the world at their face value, 
and there is never any question as to their being redeemed. 
The English Government does not find it necessary to hoard 
an enormous gold reserve to make its paper money pass cur- 
rent. The faith which the people of the British Empire and 
the world have in that government is a sufficient guarantee of 
the money being redeemed on demand for its face value in 
gold. It would be no more possible for the Bank of England to 
meet a "run" on it for instant exchange of its paper currency 
into gold than it would be for the United States Government 
or any other. It is woing to the position, which time has shown 
is a sofe one, that summary demand for the exchange of paper 
currency into gold is not to be permitted, that the Government 
is justified in repelling any such effort on the part of those who 
can get control of any formidable volume of paper money. 

In this country it would be no difficult task for the Govern- 
ment to secure control of the issuance of paper money, based 
upon the credit of the nation direct, and not, as at present, 
through the medium of national bank notes, which are only 
guaranteed by the margin of value in United States bonds left 
in the custody of the Treasury. While such an unscientific 
form of money can be made to pass current, as it does in this 
country to-day, certainly a paper currency based upon the 
direct pledge of the United States Government to pay one hun- 
dred cents in gold on every dollar, would awaken no distrust. 

The one thing that is needed to put an end to the money 



Money Monopoly. 45 

monopoly is to seek counsel from the people and their legis- 
lators who are elected under pledges to be true to their con- 
stituents. It is too much of a stretch to expect the money mo- 
nopolists themselves to formulate a plan for their own undo- 
ing. The monetary legislation needed to wrest the money 
control from Rockeffler and Morgan will not come through 
any bills drafted by their counsel or their representatives in the 
House or Senate. 

There is nothing Delphic in the monetary problem and the 
only reason that the laymen cannot now discuss it intelligently 
is because the bankers with as much acumen as the doctors and 
lawyers have shrouded their "profession" in mystery. The 
plain, everyday arithmetic of the public schools is sufficient to 
show the extortionate profits and usurious interest that banks 
are making from the people's funds, and the books of various 
banks could be audited by grammar school bookkeepers and 
be proved a record of falsification. 



CHAPTER IX. 
Fear of 1908. 

What was there in the outlook for 1908 to cause appre- 
hension? The country was boundlessly prosperous in all 
material respects. There was not a single section of the 
land in which agriculture, manufacturing and the various 
branches of industry were not being conducted successfully. 
It was only the "Money Changers" who cried: "Breakers 
Ahead ! Beware of the Rocks ! A panic is here ; The country 
is too prosperous; the reaction has come," and other hack- 
neyed phrases, all intended to further distress the public mind. 

The fear of 1908 did not rest in the breasts of the people. 
It found a lurking place only in the craven hearts of the 
Financial Pirates, who have been caught looting the nation. 
Their fear was well founded. In Roosevelt, they had come 
face to face with a man who did not fear their threats, who 
was above the reach of their bribes, and who had the force- 
ful nature to carry into execution the ideas that were 
advanced for the good of the people. Others have thought 
of many plans for the relief of the people from trust oppres- 
sion. Roosevelt had set the machinery of publicity in mo- 



Fear of 1908. 47 

tion and every one now knows the criminal course that 
the Captains of Finance have pursued to form their trusts, 
combines, mergers and monopolies for thirty years. 

The fear for 1908 was centered in the magnates who knew 
that fines and imprisonment awaited them under the 
Roosevelt Square Deal Policy. 

What could they do to prevent a progressive candidate 
from being elected? Create a panic and befuddle the 
people's mind, so the real issues would not be discussed. 

The Money Changers of Wall Street are in business for 
profit. They do not come forward to "save" the country 
until a panic of their own creation is at its height. Then 
they withdraw their clutch on the purse strings and con- 
ditions are temporarily relieved. 

What has John D. Rockefeller or J. Pierpont Morgan 
done to assist the Nation in the recent crisis ? 

Many months ago, pious John D. Rockefeller told the 
people of the country, that a panic was coming. He was 
a good forecaster, for in his hands lay the absolute power 
to create the panic as much as it is in his absolute power to 
raise ok lower the price of a gallon cf oil, and it arrived on 
schedule time. 

J. P. Morgan, the Field Marshall of the Financial Army 
of Crusaders, who ride forth occasionally to "rescue the 
fair nation's credit," what has he done during the troublous 
days? He has extended his pawnshop hours in order to 
attend to the press of business in makig loans (of the 
people's money which he controls) to railroads, banks, etc., 
for a profit which he and his associates make and retain. 
This is "practical nation saving." 

What wonder that Rockefeller beats the bush for the 
game which Morgan bags so skillfully, and that a subsidized 
press cheers them as benefactors and "Nation Savers!" 



NATIONS-WEALTH 

30-% APR I CULTURE 5Q# 

;5ft MINES Z5 % t 

[^RAIL ROAPSis^y 

PERSONAL AND 
,5%REALESTATE g 



tfF*" 



KING 



GASH 

ONLY 



C.n.narrimun 



1 homusi.KvjQn 



SEE-SAW 



NATIONS CREDIT SYSTEM 



CREDIT BUSINESS . 

* fe oo.ooo.ooo.o oo, 

£>$■% ofAll. 



GASH 

ONLY 



John D. Rockefeller- J. Pi erfciont Morgan 



50 Roosevelt. 

Men, who can reason, must see that the country's finan- 
cial basis is not correct, when it is possible for two men to 
juggle with the money of the nation, at their pleasure, and 
create panics "while you wait," for their own profit. 

The power of these men can not be broken by a tirade 
emanating from one of their discharged mercenary officers, 
such as Thomas W. Lawson, of Boston. It can not be 
broken by the scattered acts of the several States to curb 
trusts. 

The only way that the Money Changers' grip on the 
Nation's purse can be broken, is by action in Washington. 
President Roosevelt showed himself ready to wrestle with 
this problem. He was not afraid to go to the people with 
his plans. The people should get at the facts and be pre- 
pared to support his successor in his campaign for Federal 
control of the money of the United States as against Wall 
Street control for purposes of marque and reprisal for 
private profit. It is a fundamental truth that the cure for 
confiscation is restitution. The people's funds have been 
confiscated by pelf in Wall Street. 

The Money Changers, with marvellous audacity, how- 
ever, raise the cry, "Don't confiscate our property," when 
as a matter of fact, .the greater part of the huge fortunes 
they hold, have been seized, stolen, confiscated, or pilfered 
from the people during a period of thirty years by means of 
artificial panics. 

If the citizens of this country keep in mind the record of 
the Money Changers and what Roosevelt has done to rouse 
their ire, the rule of the two John's as "Nation Saverss for 
profit only, will end. A rapid re-adjustment of the financial 
conditions of the country will follow the breaking of the 
money monopoly's power. 

It is a simple matter for any one to figure that credit, — 



Fear of 1908. 51 

faith in the honesty of man to man, is essential to any busi- 
ness or to any system of money. With 85,000,000 peop 5 " 
doing business on $3,000,000,000 in gold, silver and pape. 
money $37.50 per capita), it is clear that credit has t» 
carry all but a trifling percentage of the transaction. It 
is estimated that ninety-eight per cent, of the business of 
the country is done on some form of credit and only two 
per cent, on cash. That is actual passing of silver and gold 
coin. Yet so unscientific, unsound and impracticable is our 
system of money, that the men who control a fraction of 
the two per cent, of "cold cash," one per cent, of the circu- 
lating media, can create panics, raise interest rates and 
paralyze industry and discredit this Nation abroad. Our 
finances are like an inverted cone. The balance is easily 
disturbed by the apex being placed on Wall Street as a 
support. 



CHAPTER X. 

An Appeal to the People. 

In all of his speeches, and in all of his writings on poli- 
tical subjects which President Roosevelt has produced, he 
has kept as the keynote that honesty of purpose in the 
people and in their affairs was the chief essential. In his 
own life, he has shown that this was his chief characteristic, 
and the one thing that all men grant he possesses in a 
superlative degree. The Roosevelt honesty is now pro- 
verbial, and, even among those who criticise him most ad- 
versely for his erratic actions, it is never intimated or 
hinted at that he has any ulterior motives. During his sec- 
ond term, his utterance that he would not be a candidate 
for renomination was discussed pro and con. Even his 
most intimate friends at times doubted the sincerity of 
this statement. He came out with a flat confirmation of 
that election-night pledge, and, as a candidate, he was de- 
finitely removed from the race. It. therefore, became an 
imperative duty on the part of the people to consider what 
candidate among the Republican possibilities best suited 
the needs of the hour. 



An Appeal to the People. 53 

The man must be essentially a Roosevelt sympathizer 
and one capable of carrying out the strenuous program that 
the Roosevelt administration pursued. In order to give the 
the Roosevelt policies a fair trial, they must be enforced as 
laws over a period of time sufficient to test their efficacy. 

In no line of effort has the President done more for the 
good of future generations than in establishing the De- 
partment of Commerce and Labor. In this Department, 
the matters of vital concern to the wage-earners of the 
country are taken care of, and every effort is being made 
to wipe out the blot which has long been on this country 
as a place where child-labor was used to an unusually 
large degree and where the conditions of labor in the mills 
were as unsanitary as even in the mill towns of England. 
Any change made in the personnel of this Department 
would be fatal to its successful conduct ; and so on, through 
the various departments of the government, Roosevelt has 
placed in command men who are earnest workers and who 
are carrying out his policies. This is especially so in the 
Department of Law, and his Attorney General and assoc- 
ates, in their successful suits against the Standard Oil 
Company, the Beef Trust and other large industrial com- 
bines, have shown fidelity and ability. Therefore, the 
people were appealed to by those interested in the Roosevelt 
policies to use their efforts to keep the complexion of the 
House of Representatives unchanged. The only successful 
measures that can be put through in the next few years 
must come through gaining the support of the Senate by 
a preponderating vote in the House of Representatives on 
bills it originates. The personnel of the Senate can not 
be suddenly changed, as the tenure of office of senators is 
six years and only one-third of the incumbents can be 
changed in any two-year period. It is different with the 



54 Roosevelt. 

N»usc of Representatives, and to this branch of Congress, 
the loyal supporters of Roosevelt saw to it that they returned 
staunch Republicans of the Roosevelt type and loyal to his 
policies. As regards the Senate, a vote of confidence passed 
by the people for a Roosevelt man in 1908 brought im- 
mediate results in the position of the United States Sen- 
ators on the popular issues of the day. Their opposi- 
tion to the election to the Senate by direct vote has 
long been a source of contention, and at this time, if 
they show opposition to the will of the people, it is certain 
that this much-needed change will be brought about. To 
save their own positions, therefore, the Senate will be more 
inclined to support popular issues than they have been dur- 
ig the seven years of Roosevelt's administration. 

In carrying out a propaganda for the installing of the 
people's candidates in office, it is necessary to consider the 
State Legislatures as well as the Federal Offices. It is 
upon the vote of the State Legislatures that senators are 
chosen, and we want to have senators elected who reflect 
the views of the people at large and not the special interests 
of railways, express companies and various other interests. 

In all the successes which Roosevelt has accomplished in 
his political career, he has gone direct to the press with his 
appeals, and at this time, more than any other, he has en- 
deavored to awaken a freedom of thought and expression 
in the press on the questions uppermost in his mind. On 
the construction of the Panama Canal, after seven or eight 
years "of indifferent support, the press of the country has 
become firm advocates of the work and are doing all in 
their power to keep Congress enthusiastic on this much 
■eeded" measure. The appropriations, which now seem as- 
sured for further work on the Canal, will not be held up hy 



An Appeal to the People. 55 

future Congresses, while the press keeps in its present 
mood. 

In analyzing the methods wh'ch Roosevelt adopted in 
his position as President, many people have objected to his 
theatric poses. These in nearly all instances, were as- 
sumed to serve the purpose of gaining publicity. Even 
through the pulpit he worked successfully, and in all 
denominations in this country, the Roosevelt supporters 
predominate. 

In the campaign of 1908, it must be borne in mind that 
the personal efforts of citizens were to count tremendously. 
There have been such changes in the methods of conduct- 
ing national campaigns that large contributions from vari- 
ous industries can not be secured. Laws have been passed 
making it an offense for insurance companies, industrial 
concerns, railways, or others who could be personally bene- 
fited, by contributing to the campaign fund, from giving 
financial support. It, therefore, devolved upon the indi- 
Tidual voters to do missionary work. 

In his Provincetown, Msasachusetts, speech in 1907, 
President Roosevelt gave voice to a statement which was 
that a "rich man's conspiracy" was under way to discredit 
his administration and to defeat the election of a popular 
candidate in 1908. When this statement was given to the 
press and disseminated, it at first provoked ridicule. Upon 
close examination, however, it has come to light that Roose- 
velt was well within the bounds of truth when he made this 
assertion. He had facts to back up the startling declara- 
tion that the rich men, viz., the banking syndicate, were 
arrayed against him and were working insidiously to bring 
about the defeat of the Roosevelt policies. The change 
©f attitude by the Standard Oil Company in breaking the 
sSsb«c »f thirty years, and going to the people with their 



56 Roosevelt. 

story, through the mouth of Vice-President Archbold; the 
loquacity of John D. Rockefeller, and the open statements 
made by J. P. Morgan, all tended to confirm the belief that 
in 1908 the monied powers were to make what they termed 
an "open" fight against the radicals. 



CHAPTER XL 
The Roosevelt Policies. 

A greater country for the American people, — greater in 
population, education, morality, physical strength, material 
prosperity. 

A greater army to be used to preserve peace and com- 
mand respect at home and abroad. 

A greater navy to be brought to a position, proper for 
the leading nation of the world. 

Building of the Panama Canal. 

Enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine and its extension 
for protection to American interests. 

Enforcement of the law against large trusts and power- 
ful individuals, with as much vigor as against minor of- 
fenders. 

Regulation of the railroads, so as to assure citizens equal 
opportunities. 

Enforcement of pure food laws. 

Reform in the monetary system. 

Publicity as a curb on large industrial organizations. 



58 Roosevelt. 

Progressive rule in the Philippines. 
An income tax. 
An inheritance tax. 
Revision of the tariff. 
An Employers' Liability Act. 
Child Labor Regulation. 
Monetary Reform. 
Civil Service Extension. 

Expansion of the Civil Service to cover all branches ot tfce 
Government. 



CHAPTER XII. 
Attacks by Twentieth Century Tories. 

Attacks on President Roosevelt have been made by all 
of the "paid-for-the-piece" politicians, who regard the nod of 
approval of the Wall Street powers as the highest human 
tribute they can receive — an approval that is measured in dol- 
lars. 

Perhaps the most salacious attack was that made by ex- 
Governor Frank S. Black, of New York. Mr. Black made 
the speech at Chicago in 1904 nominating Theodore Roose- 
velt, and in it he expressed the belief that the President 
was the highest type of American. But ex-Governor Black 
has been "shown the errors of his judgment" by the Wall 
Street "Nation Savers." In Boston, on February 13th, 1908, 
he spent an hour in denouncing the President and his admin- 
istration before the Home Market Protection Club. The chief 
utterances in his speech were as follows : 

"Policies consist now of a series of antics. Integrity 
seems almost a handicap. Public officials are excused from 
performance if they are gifted in explanation. 

"Crime, always active and persistent, seems even more 



60 Roosevelt. 

aggressive now because the new method of punishment is by 
denunciation instead of conviction. 

"Nearly everybody is accused but few are tried. If no 
crime has been committed it is immoral to charge it. If 
crime has been committed why not punish it? If those ac- 
cused are innocent the oft-repeated accusation is a wicked 
slander. If they are guilty their immunity is a national dis- % 
grace. 

"Whichever way the truth may be the present attitude of 
the National Government is without defence. 

"The credit of our people has been assailed in accents car- 
ried round the world. Their violence and repetition have 
achieved their only natural results. Confidence, the basis 
on which all friendly intercourse depends, has been finally 
destroyed. The laborer deprived of work is now demand- 
ing government aid as the next and legitimate step in this 
new and frenzied dispensation. Prosperity, but yesterday 
at the flood, has leaked away and there along the banks are 
furnaces with their fires out and idle railroad trains with 
workmen sleeping in the cars. And yet Vesuvius still con- 
tinues active. The torrent of vituperation is still tearing 
on, and the cry of the stricken is filling the land. Will men 
build again while these eruptions last? Where is the end 
and what? 

" 'The people of this country, if they retain their present 
power and realize their highest aspirations, must take coun- 
sel of their common sense and return to the place of safety 
from which they have so unwisely departed. The functions 
of government are important, but their range is small. The 
present thought and tendencies upon that subject spring 
from misconception. Government at the highest is a guar- 
anty of personal liberty, a free field and a fair chance; the 



Attacks by Twentieth Century Tories. 61 

encouragement of industry and education; and the resolute 
protection of them all. And government is nothing more. 

"It is neither necessary nor wise to embrace under gov- 
ernmental supervision every subject known to the human 
race. Americans do not need to be managed or advised 
in their business, their habits ond their pleasures. The less 
they are governed the higher will be their civilization and 
the more complete their freedom. 

"This country does not need any one to run it or to feed 
it; it sadly needs some one who will let it alone. 

"Mr. President, great as the danger has become from 
corporate abuses, that danger is invisible compared with 
that which will arise if you enlarge and incorporate all the 
functions of your government and place all the stock in a 
single name. 

"The most tyrannical trust in existence to-day is the trust 
in politics. There never has been in the history of this 
country a bossism so despotic and unscrupulous as that 
which controls you now. It has already reached that ap- 
palling stage where it is sought to fill the highest elective 
office in the world by executive appointment without even 
the safeguard of a confirmation by the Senate. 

"The two great political parties, once so proud and mili- 
tant, are playthings in the hands of two men whom the in- 
telligence of the country rejects. 

"The contest is not of statesmanship nor of policies; it is a 
rivalry to see who can say the most and worst. No matter 
which man wins, the country loses, for it is at best only a 
case of competitive unfitness. 

"We are drifting away from our ancient moorings and 
losing sight of the qualities that have made us powerful 
and respected. We are carried by excitement beyond 
bounds which ten years ago would have filled us with dis- 



62 Roosevelt. 

may. We have seemingly entered upon a national debauch, 
and, whirling the big stick, are running amuck through the 
institutions of the land. A deadly weapon should never be 
trusted in the hands of those too prone to use it. The 
thoughtful and law-abiding among us are holding their 
breath, and have lost the power to be astonished. They 
are not convinced; they are only numb. Speaking is the 
order of the day, yet those whom the people would most 
gladly hear have lost the power of speech. 

"Gentlemen, this is a splendid country. No one in his- 
tory has equalled it in its past achievements or in its future 
prospects. But it must turn in its headlong pace and re- 
gather its scattered senses if it would realize the wonderful 
future which its past accomplishments have so freely prom- 
ised. Government is a system which must be carefully 
thought out, and the results even of that deliberation must 
be cautiously applied. 

"Plans conceived in the study should not be overruled in 
the stable. The best is none too good for us, and the best 
never was and never will be devised by those who do not 
think. 

"Sane methods should never be abandoned, no matter 
how quaint they are. They have stood for many years, and 
under them the enduring things of the world have been ac- 
complished. 

"By methods sometimes thought too slow our forefathers 
carved out results which stand as landmarks in the pro- 
gress of the race. They were not always swift, but they 
intended always to be right. Their judgment and example 
should not be forgotten now. We should remember that 
the conspicuous is not always great; that high places do 
not always make great men ; the sound of water does not 



Attacks by Twentieth Century Tories. 6$ 

always mean the ocean and the landscape may be painted 
on a husk. 

"I entertain the firm belief that the problems which now 
dishearten us will be decided right. Political questions may 
sometimes go by unheeded, but the problems now confront- 
ing us involve the elements of honesty and fair play. These 
are moral questions, to be decided by conscience and educa- 
cation. These two together are not likely to go astray. 

"Mr. President, the more widely education spreads, the 
less dependent is the general mass. Leading others is not 
so helpful as it is to so illuminate the way that without 
leading they may see to walk alone. 

"We have seen both methods tried. The quality of lead- 
ership depends upon the man. He may be followed by the 
best or worst, and if he has character and force the choice 
of followers is in his own hands. 

"A most conspicuous example of intelligent direction is 
now in the public mind. My own State has the honor to 
present him for popular examination. Few are so blind 
they do not see that his example floods the country with 
new confidence and hope. The best will follow those who 
lead the best. 

"A leader is not one who excites the crowd and then goes 
with it. His supremacy will last only while the blood is up. 
When the fever subsides the man who caused it is the first 
man rent. He is as one who pulls the dam away. He must 
run with the flood and can only last while he keeps ahead. 
If he stops he must be swallowed in the gulf and join the 
havoc and destruction he turned loose. If matters little 
what you call the flood. Its destructiveness will not be 
measured by its name. The torrents of the mountain 
stream are no more wicked than the torrents f human pas- 
sion. It is a race for life with either. 



64 Roosevelt. 

"We sometimes take a passing fancy for conviction. We 
forget that public opinion is not always what the majority 
may at any given moment cry or demand or denounce. 
Whoever judges an utterance without knowing the temper 
that produced it has only the chance of being right that 
goes with any guess. The excited man says one thing : cast 
down, another; morose or angry, moved by discontent or 
hope, starved or fed, his varying moods produce a varying 
speech. 

"Let no man say what public opinion is till the flood sub- 
sides and the land appears, for the rushing waters may not 
express it as it is. 

"Mr. President, the discriminating sense of this great 
country can be depended on, and those who shape their 
course according to that truth will win. No matter what 
the test may be, the final issue rests with him who thinks. 

"On this reliance I base my confidence, for ti will be a sad 
day for the American people if they discard the words, 'In 
God We Trust' and adopt the motto 'After me the deluge.' " 

In substance, this is the trend of all those who attack 
President Roosevelt. They arrogate all the honesty, pa- 
triotism and wisdom of the country as being the sole pos- 
session of the leeches of Wall Street and denounce as "dan- 
gerous" those who have dared to bring the haughty and ar- 
rogant to account. This class of sophistry is on a par with 
the Tory arguments that were advanced in the ante-Revolu- 
tionary days when the Fathers of this Republic dared to 
talk of, and later, to fight for freedom. It is on a par with 
the ante-bellum arguments of the advocates of human slav- 
ery who chose to temporize rather than disturb the prosper- 
ity of those who benefited by holding the negro in bondage. 

The work that President Roosevelt has accomplished by 
waging war against successful dishonesty in high places, 



Attacks by Twentieth Century Tories. 65 

meets with the approval of the great mass of Americans. 
It is a fight that only a brave man could make and the 
enemies he has made number only those who are respon- 
sible for the financial servitude of the nation to Wall Street, 
and those who are blind to the truth. He has performed in 
this Twentieth Century what was done two thousand years 
ago, when the Money Changers were scourged from the 
temple by the Saviour of man. In all history, the fearless, 
upright man has always been the object of attack by those who 
sought to retain unwarranted power. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Placing the Responsibility. 

In his special message to Congress on January 31st, 1908, 
President Roosevelt sounded the "bugle call to the nation." 
He placed squarely before the people the question, "Who 
Rules America?" In this state document, the President charged 
the Wall Street financiers with the responsibility of the recent 
panic. He went further and proved his charge. 

Let the fair-minded American who has felt the weight of 
the Money Changers' grasp read the following words from 
the President's message. 

"The attacks by these great corporations on the Adminis- 
tration's actions have been given a wide circulation through- 
out the country, in the newspapers and otherwise, by those 
writers and speakers who, consciously or unconsicously act as 
the representatives of predatory wealth — of the wealth accumu- 
lated on a giant scale by all forms of iniquity, ranging from 
the oppression of wage-workers to unfair and unwholesome 
methods of crushing out competition, and to defrauding the 
public by stock jobbing and the manipulation of securities. 



Placing the Responsibility. 67 

Certain wealthy men of this stamp, whose conduct should 
be abhorrent to every man of ordinarily decent conscience, 
and who commit the hideous wrong of teaching our young men 
that phenomenal business success must ordinarily be based on 
dishonesty, have during the last few months made it apparent 
that they have banded together to work for a reaction. Their 
endeavor is to overthrow and discredit all who honestly ad- 
minister the law, to prevent any additional legislation which 
would check and restrain them, and to secure, if possible, a 
freedom from all restraint which will permit every unscrupu- 
lous wrongdoer to do what he wishes unchecked provided he 
has enough money. The only way to counteract the movement 
in which these men are engaged is to make clear to the public 
just what they have done in the past and just what they are 
seeking to accomplish in the present. 

The Administration and those who support its views are 
not only not engaged in an assault on property, but are 
strenuous upholders of the rights of property. 

The amount of money the representatives of certain great 
moneyed interests are willing to spend can be gauged by 
their recent publication broadcast throughout the papers of 
this country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, of huge adver- 
tisements attacking with envenomed bitterness the Admin- 
istration's policy of waring against successful dishonesty, and 
by their circulation of pamphlets and books prepared with the 
same object, while they likewise push the circulation of the 
writings and speeches of men who, whether because they are 
misled, or because, seeing the light, they yet are willing to sin 
against the light, serve these masters of great wealth to the 
cost of the plain people. 

The books and pamphlets, the controlled newspapers, the 
speeches by public or private men to which I refer, are usually 



68 Roosevelt. 

and especially in the interest of the Standard Oil Trust and 
of certain notroious railroad combinations, but they also 
defend other individuals and corporations of great wealth that 
have been guilty of wrongdoing. It is only rarely that the 
men responsible for the wrongdoing themselves speak or 
write. Normally, they hire others to do their bidding or find 
others who will do it without hire. 

From the railroad-rate law to the pure-food law, every 
measure for honesty in business that has been passed during 
the last six years has been opposed by those men on its passage 
and in its administration with every resource that bitter and 
unscrupulous craft could suggest and the command of almost 
unlimited money secure. But for the last year the attack has 
been made with most bitterness upon the actual administra- 
tion of the law, especially through the Department of Justice. 
but also through the Inter-State Commerce Commission and 
the Bureau of Corporations. 

The extraordinary violence of the assaults upon our policv 
contained in these speeches, editorials, articles, advertisements 
and pamphlets, and the enormous sums of money spent in these 
various ways, are a fairly accurate measure of the anger and 
terror which our public actions have caused the corrupt men 
of vast wealth to feel in the very marrow of their being. The 
attack is sometimes made openly against us for enforcing the 
law, and sometimes with a certain cunning, for not trying to 
enforce it in some other way than that which experience shows 
to be practical. 

One of the favorite methods of the latter class of assail- 
ant is to attack the Administration for not procuring the 
imprisonment instead of the fine of offenders under these 



Placing the Responsibility. 09 

anti-trust laws. The man making the assault is usually 
a prominent lawyer or an editor who takes his policy from 
the financiers, and his arguments from their attorneys. If 
the former, he has defended and advised many wealthy male- 
factors, and he knows well that, thanks to the advice of law- 
yers like himself, a certain kind of modern corporation has 
been turned into an admirable instrument by which to render 
it well nigh impossible to get at the head of the corporation, at 
the man who is really most guilty. 

When we are able to put the real wrongdoer in prison, this 
is what we strive to do ; this is what we have actually done with 
some very wealthy criminals, who, moreover, represented that 
most baneful of all alliances, the alliance between the cor- 
ruption of organized politics and the corruption of high 
finance. This is what we have done in the Gaynor and Greene 
case, in the case of the misapplication of funds in connection 
with certain great banks in Chicago, in the land-fraud cases, 
where, as in other cases likewise, neither the highest political 
position nor the possession of great wealth has availed to save 
the offenders from prison. 

The Federal Government does scourge sin ; it does bid sin- 
ners fear ; for it has put behind the bars with impartial severity 
the powerful financier, the powerful politician, the rich land 
thief, the rich contractor — all, no matter how high their sta- 
tion, against whom criminal misdeeds can be proved. All 
their wealth and power cannot protect them. 

But it often happens that the effort to imprison a given 
defendant is certain to be futile, while it is possible to fine 
him or to fine the corporation of which he is head ; so that, 
in other words, the only way of punishing the wrong is by 
fining the corporation, unless we are content to proceed per- 
sonally against the minor agents. The corporation lawyers 
to whom I refer and their employers are the men mainly 






jo Roosevelt. 

responsible for this state of things, and their responsibility is 
shared with all who ingeniously oppose the passage of just 
and effective laws, or who fail to execute them when they 
have been put on the statute books. 

The business which is hurt by the movement for honesty 
is the kind of business which, in the long run, it pays the 
country to have hurt. It is the kind of business which has 
tended to make the very name "high finance" a term of scandal 
to which all honest American men of business should join in 
putting an end. 

The special pleaders for business dishonesty, in denounc- 
ing the present Administration for enforcing the law against 
the huge and corrupt corporations which have defied the 
law, also denounce it for endeavoring to secure sadly needed 
labor legislation, such as a far-reaching law making employ- 
ers liable for injuries to their employees. It is meet and tit 
that the apologists for corrupt wealth should oppose every 
effort to relieve weak and helpless people from crushing 
misfortune brought upon them by injury in the business from 
which they gain a bare livelihood. The burden should 
be distributed. 

It is hypocritical baseness to speak of a girl who works 
in a factory where the dangerous machinery is unprotected 
as having the "right" freely to contract to expose herself 
to dangers to life and limb. She has no alternative but to 
suffer want or else to expose herself to such dangers, and 
when she loses a hand or is otherwise maimed or disfigured 
for life it is a moral wrong that the whole burden of the 
risk necessarily incidental to the business should be placed 
with crushing weight upon her weak shoulders, and all who 
profit by her work escape scot free. This is what oppo- 
nents of a just Employers' Liability Law advocate ; and it is 
consistent that they should usually also advocate immunity 



Placing the Responsibility. 71 

for those most dangerous members of the criminal class— the 
criminals of great wealth. 

There is no nation so absolutely sure of ultimate success 
as ours. Of course, we shall succeed. Ours is a nation of 
masterful energy, with a continent for its domain, and it feels 
within its veins the thrill which comes to those who know 
that they possess the future. We are not cast down by the 
fear of failure. We are upheld by the confident hope of 
ultimate triumph. 

The wrongs that exist are to be corrected; but they in 
no way justify doubt as to the final outcome, doubt as to 
the great material prosperity of the future, or of the lofty 
spiritual life which is U be built upon that prosperity as a 
foundation. No misdeeds done in the present must be per- 
mitted to shroud from our eyes the glorious future of the 
Nation ; but because of this very fact it behooves us never to 
swerve from our resolute purpose to cut out wrong-doing and 
uphold what is right. 

I do not for a moment believe that the actions of this 
Administration have brought on business distress; so far 
as this is due to local and not world-wide causes, and to 
the actions of any particular individuals, it is due to the 
speculative folly and flagrant dishonesty of a few men of 
great wealth, who seek to shield themselves from the effects 
of their own wrong-doing by ascribing its results to the 
actions of those who have sought to put a stop to the wrong- 
doing. 

But if it were true that to cut out rottenness from the 
body politic meant a momentary check to an unhealthy 
seeming prosperity, I should not for one moment hesitate 
to put the knife to the corruption. On behalf of all of our 
people, on behalf no less of the honest man of means than 
of the honest man who earns each day's livelihood by that 



72 Roosevelt. 

day's sweat of his brow, it is necessary to insist upon hon- 
esty in business and politics alike, in all walks of life, in 
big things and in little things ; upon just and fair dealing 
as between man and man. Those who demand this are 
striving for the right in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln 
when he said : 

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty 
scourge may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it 
continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen's two 
hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and 
until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid 
by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand 
years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord 
are true and righteous altogether.' 

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firm- 
ness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 
on to finish the work we are in." 

"In the work we of this generation are in, there is, thanks 
be to the Almigthy, no danger of bloodshed and no use for 
the sword ; but there is grave need of those stern qualities 
shown alike by the men of the North and the men of the 
South in the dark days when each valiantly battled for the 
light as it was given each to see the light. Their light 
should be our spirit, as we strive to bring nearer the day 
when greed and trickery and cunning shall be trampled under 
feet by those who fight for the righteousness that exalteth a 
nation." 

Who deserved the confidence of the American people at 
the crisis, the men who have gained control of the financial 
system of the country for their personal aggrandizement 



Placing the Responsibility. 73 

or the President and his loyal supporters who fought for the 
people's right in the mightiest struggle in history? The ver- 
dict at the polls on November 3, 1908, emphatically answered 
that they stood by Roosevelt and his policies. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Roosevelt's Last Crusade. 

In the final days of his administration President Roosevelt 
expected to follow the routine of office, and to make few, if 
any, crusades into fields of political iniquity; but the pressure 
of events forced him to take a decided stand on the question 
of the curtailment of the Secret Service. Congress was ap- 
prised by the President in his last message to the 6oth Con- 
gress that he would not allow the restriction of the use of the 
Secret Service to pass him unnoticed. In his message he 
brought out the fact that when the several divisions of the 
Executive Department had employed the Government detective 
force on land scandals, they had traced acts of malfeasance to 
members of Congress in both the Senate and the House of 
Representatives. So pointed were the statements of the Pres- 
ident that the members of Congress at once took action to 
cause him to retract, apologize or explain. They assumed an 
air of injured innocence that ill-became them when several of 
their members had already been convicted of frauds and were 
either under sentence or indictment. The newspapers of the 



Roosevelt's Last Crusade. 75 

country were at first inclined to take the attitude that "Roose- 
velt had broken loose again" ; but subsequent events are show- 
ing that he was in the right, as he has been invariably on all 
matters of moral ethics during his two terms. 

There is a growing belief that the members of Congress who 
are honest and who have clean hands, and they represent a 
large majority, should stand with the Executive in wanting to 
see frauds unearthed and stopped. If the Secret Service is the 
proper instrument to effect this, then the people's representa- 
tives should extend their aid to the Executive and allow the 
President, or the proper officials under him, to search for the 
evildoers. There is little sympathy with the Congressmen and 
Senators who assume that they are above the pale of the law, 
and that they should not be subject to investigation. This 
same attitude was taken by the officials in the large insurance 
companies when the searchlight of publicity was being turned 
on them a year or so ago. They resented being investigated, 
but the Legislatures of the several States have brought the in- 
surance companies to understand that they are the handlers of 
the people's money and must be held to a strict accountability. 
So with Congress, the people want it understood that they ap- 
prove of the Roosevelt stand. The honest members of Con- 
gress have nothing to fear and the dishonest ones should be 
routed. That there are many deals being carried out at pres- 
ent under the protection or with the knowledge of certain 
members of both houses is generally believed, and the citizens 
in all States are anxious that the investigation of Post Office 
privileges, land grants, public contracts and concessions should 
be thorough. 

In passing criticism on Congress President Roosevelt did 
not singularize. He was not engaged in holding any one man 



76 Roosevelt. 

or set of men up to public criticism. He took the subject in 
its extensive phase and declared that he, as the Chief Execu- 
tive of the people, was determined to hunt out the rascals in 
Congress. If it was necessary for him to employ the Secret 
Service, he wanted the power to do so. He was especially 
anxious to have the provision made before President Taft came 
into office, so that the Taft Administration would not have to 
antagonize Congress. 

The fight that has been waged against Roosevelt during the 
closing session of the 6oth Congress has served no good pur- 
pose for the members of either house. It has, however, been 
the means of directing the attention of the people to the diffi- 
cult task that a President has, when he attempts to interfere 
with the so-called privileges of Congress. Roosevelt in run- 
ning counter to Congress has measurably increased his stand- 
ing with his fellow-citizens. The Senate contains in its mem- 
bership some of the country's best types of men. It also num- 
bers some of the most conspicuous examples of trust-owned 
men. The lower House with its large membership is com- 
posed of men of low, medium and high ability on both the Re- 
publican and Democratic sides. But there is no halo around 
a member which sets him apart as a man above suspicion and 
beyond reproach. 

The sincerely public-spirited members did not take offense at 
the statements in the last annual message of President Roose- 
velt. The public regards the whole controversy as one that 
can best be settled by publicity. They agreed with Roosevelt 
in the stand he took for publicity of the Trusts, and they found 
no reason to desert him when he sought to apply the search- 
light of publicity to Congress. In this, his last fight, he has 
made more friends than in any other. It is clear to the people, 



Roosevelt's Last Crusade. jj 

now as it has never been before, why legislation, intended for 
their benefit, has been defeated. The exposure of the Senators 
who received the "Certificates of Deposit" of the Standard Oil 
for services rendered, opened the eyes of President Roosevelt 
in the campaign of 1908, and, irrespective of whom it affected 
in Congress, he began to call for a searching investigation. It 
i? certain that under the new administration the policy of rigid 
enforcement of the law will be followed. 

The patli that Roosevelt has blazed will in future be opened 
and broadened by Executives who have the interests of the 
people at heart. The period to the Roosevelt Administration 
was most fittingly the triumph which he won over Congress 
on the Secret Service issue. From blustering about impeach- 
ing hin. and demanding retraction, the 60th Congress heard 
the popular voice back of Roosevelt and the Senate and the 
House of Representatives tamed down. The counsels of the 
honest and wise members prevailed, and the railroad resolu- 
tions were tabled. Again Roosevelt had bearded a lion in its 
den and had won a victory for honesty in public office. 

In conclusion, let it be said that no matter what mistakes 
may have been made ; what interests may seem to have been 
antagonized, or what misconceptions, resultant therefrom, may 
have been formed, such mistakes, if any there are, could not 
have been other than honest ones, and it is but human to err. 
The bitter antagonism of any interest, if such has been felt, 
could not have been inspired but by President Roosevelt's un- 
diminishable regard for the public welfare, for his enemies, as 
well as his friends, concede to him the possession of moral 
courage well nigh incomparable and integrity absolutely unim- 
peachable. In consequence of his attributes as a man and the 
distinguished record he has made as the People's President, 



7& Roosevelt. 

Theodore Roosevelt is enshrined in the Nation's heart, haloed 
with its love, devotion and respect, and the splendor of his 
fame will increase with the passing years. His name will ever 
remain in the most cherished annals of the race as that of one 
whose lifework made for universal righteousness, and for the 
establishment of which, in his own land, he contended always 
against all odds and despite every untoward circumstance. 



ROOSEVELT 

HIS POLICIES 
HIS ENEMIES 
HIS FRIENDS 




By FRANCIS A. ADAMS 



PRICE, 25 CENTS 



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